Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1887-07-18
OHIO AND INDIANA.
CARPENTER WRITES OF THE GAS
IN THOSE TWO STATES.

Tndiana's Territo.y Mach the Largsr-
The Present COndition Of Affairs In
Findlay, Ohio, Anderson, Indiana, and
Other Townsville Boom BGoderating.
Especial Correspondence
FINDLAY, July Q.
write this letter in Findlay, and my ears
are ringing with the echoes OF it, boomers.
The growth OF these Ohio towns has reused
an intense native pride, and they are as jeal-
GUS of each other as two girls laying siege to
the same beau. Fostoria, Findlay and Lima
each have had boons, and none is willing
to concede that much good can come out of
the Nazareth Of the others. FostOria charges
Findlay with dullness and with having no
railroad facilities, and Findlay, when asked
as to Fostorias boom, says with confiden-
tial whisper, "Fostoria u dead; she brings
her gas from the country into the city in
pipe, and her advantages are nothing COM
pared to ours"
Tho truth of the matter seems to be that
there Is great gas belt Of tens OF thousands
of acres running through this western part Of
Ohio which contains apparently inexhaustible
supplies of natural gas.
The oil men say that geology never filled
tank or a gasometef. The greatest geologist
Of Ohio lectured at Findlay while the first
gas we'll was being sunk, and In the lecture
he told bis bearers that the men might az we'll
stop their labors, and that 1t was physical
impossibility TO find gas In such geological
structure as lay beneath them. The well
proved the ignorance Of science. Some Of
the wells near Findlay produce from 5000 900
to Il, OOO, 900 Of cubic feet Of gas day, and
the estimated present daily capacity Of the
thirty Findlay gas wells is 6O,OOo.0O0 cubic
feet daily. This, as Tar as heating Is con-
cerned, would equal I $50 tons Of coal, or, es-
timating ten tons as the yearly consumption
Of an average family, enough heating power
each day to supply 163 families with coal for
the whole year. At the rate charged for gas
in Washington city it would be worth 500, 900
day, and, estimating 1000 cubic feet o. gas
worth eight cents in coal, q coal product
worth 1900 a day. This last is an overesti-
nate however, as the high price Of coal at
Findlay is used in tho calculation.
-.
All Findlay, which by the estimate Of its
citizens has a population OF from 1%,OOO to
1900, is lighted and heated with gas. There
are two gas companies, and the rates are e.
teen cents month for q stove, and five cents
a month for each gas burner up to ten bu IL
ers in the house. All burners used in private
houses over ten are free, and the highest ,st
of lighting private house is about fifty cents
a month. Cooking stoves are charged for
the year round, and the largest cook stove or
range costs but $3.50 year. Other stoves
are charged for only the seven winter months,
and the fuel for q CRATE or q stove costs only
Sl05 O year. Stores are charged o littlo
more than private houses, but the landlord of
one of the hotels tells me he saves 81 900 D
year in his present fuel and lighting arrange
nlents, and the keeper Of the other hotel states
that he pays only an average OF e1l.25 q
month for lighting and heating.
49,
For lighting purposes this natural gas IL
not the BEST and look for the day when It
will he used almost exclusively for heating.
Its flame Is too strong and it is somewhat ir-
regular. 1t makes a bright light, but it
tiicxers continually like q giant candle which
ms not been snuffei for days. Its light is
yellow, and here at Findlay gas burners with
tips rs big as the end of your thumb are used
The pressure Is 50 strong that when turned to
their full the flame becomes blue, and 1t
branches out as large as lady's small fan.
| write this letter with one burner turned
,nly one third on. The light is bright, but
my eyes are sore with its Pickering. l rise
and give the screw a twitch. A burning sheet
4 flame springs out which quivers and curls
1t the sides in yellow rolls. Its top ticks the
,.ir with dozen fiery tongues, and the fame
It the tip of the burner Is as transparent .
,lue as the clearest italian sky nature ever
painted. turn the screw further. The blue
widens and spreads, until when at full blast
The gas rushes out with q whir like that Of o
scared partridge, and q whole small handker-
'hief Of blue fame, without dash Of yellow,
bursts into the air. 1t is very hot, and the
haitian IL Ia al
to heating than lighting.
At night the streets Of Findlay look like a
zig torchlight procession on picket duty. The
as rushes out in great flames from the naked
.ipes without gas posts or gas lamps 1t
iares this way and that as the wind blows,
md the flame ranges from six inches TO
bout two feet square in area. 1t is never
SQUARE, however, and its fiery fickerinc
makes one think of q she DEVILS long, fiery
ocks floating in the breeze. The town has
more gas than it can use, and it don't seem to
are how much it burns Some Of the gas
cts flame away throughout the day, and
enough gas goes to waste to light a great
ity. Invention may produce patent
burner, which will make it possible to usc
his high pressure natural gas for lighting,
nut none OF the burners in use here have
solved the problem. Some houses have semi
,lODeS like sOiie Wllu tue eltCtTiC IRnU,
an inverted glass bowl in which the flame
burns. So
AS to manufacturing, natural gas is being
used here successfully by number Of estab-
ishments, and Findlay is growing under the
inducements which she holds out to these
She offers to furnish unlimited heat and light
free % any foundry, factory or mill which
win locate in her borders, and more than
that; she offers land on which to estah-
lish works. She claimed to have thirty.
one manufacturing institutions either up or
contracted for at the time Of her great cele-
bration, and am told at her board OF trade
That since that time five more institutions
have made definite arrangements to move
here. These figures sound very big, but one
must guard against accepting them in their
broadest sense. None Of the establishments
already here are very large. either in the
lumber Of employees or in the amount Of cap
ital stock, and a number Of them are yet un
built. One hundred Thousand dollars Il the
biggest capital stock have heard Of, and
this is to be the LAGRANGE Rolling mills, an
which was started with boom
in Missouri, and with, am told, 800 hands
II failed some time ago, and it now comes to